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LATE ON TUESDAY evening, the Government published the Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Bill 2020. Included in the Bill’s 31 sections are a series of measures affecting renters.
The emergency legislation comes as tens of thousands of low-income workers living in the private rented sector lose their jobs.
With rent payments due at the start of April tens of thousands of renters simply have no way of paying their rent. Like many people, they are extremely frightened of what the immediate future will bring.
If passed by the Oireachtas this week the Bill will prevent landlords from issuing Notices to Quit or evicting tenants for a minimum of three months. Landlords will also be prevented from increasing rents during this emergency period. All existing Notices to Quit and Residential Tenancies Board proceedings on such notices will be suspended.
The one exception will be where a landlord issued a Notice to Quit before the passing of the legislation, related to breach of contract. In such cases, the Residential Tenancies Board must have regard to the circumstances of the tenant before making a decision on whether an eviction can proceed.
The Department of Social Protection is also expected to announce a streamlined Rent Supplement payment. This is an emergency payment for people who, due to the loss of income, or their job are unable to pay their rent.
The Minister will have the power to extend these measures if the Covid-19 crisis continues.
The measures proposed will at least prevent mass evictions in the weeks ahead. The ban on rent increases and additional rent supplement payment will allow tenants to pay something towards their rent.
We needed more
While all of this is welcome it does not go far enough and there are two real concerns.
Firstly, there are many renters who do not have a tenancy agreement. They have licences or verbal agreements to rent-a-room. These, often very vulnerable tenants, must also be protected by the Bill and we will be putting forward amendments to make this happen.
Secondly, for those renters with tenancy agreements, there are growing concerns that tens of thousands of renters will accumulate substantial rent arrears debt during the emergency.
With average rents at €1200 per month statewide and €1762 in Dublin, this debt burden could be between €3000 and €6000 per renter depending on their rent levels and the length of the Covid-19 emergency.
This debt burden will not only cripple all those concerned but will also cause a real problem for the economy and the stability of the rental sector when the ban on evictions and Notices to Quit is lifted.
There is a solution. We must ensure that landlords whose tenants are unable to pay their rent get a real moratorium on their mortgages. In turn, tenants must get real rent reductions and rent waivers.
This means landlords will get some level of rent payment during the emergency period via rent supplement and the tenant will not be left with an unsustainable debt when the Covid-19 restrictions are lifted.
A huge number of these renters worked in low or modest paid jobs. There is no guarantee that they will get those jobs back or if they do that their wages will be at the level they were previously. Even if they do return to previous wage levels their income would not be able to sustain the level of debt that could accumulate.
The government must plug this gap
Renters can not be left to carry this debt burden by themselves. We need Government, banks and landlords to work with renters to ensure that the cost of this crisis is fairly shared. Rent reductions and waivers are the only way to ensure this.
Last night the Dáil debated a number of opposition amendments including a Sinn Féin proposal to deal with this rent arrears debt burden. Now, the Government must work with opposition TDs and organisations representing tenants, landlords and lenders to come up with a solution to this issue.
Our amendment explicitly calls for rent reductions and rent waivers to be considered as part of any such package. The amendment will be voted on in the Seanad later this morning. Let’s hope the Oireachtas does the right thing by hard-pressed renters.
Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West and spokesperson on Housing, Planning & Local Government.
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This is an issue. The media, and people in this country need to stop obsessing and focusing on homelessness…the lack of mental health supports for children young people and adults is a national crisis and needs to be addressed now. This issue crosses class and geographical divides, it affects far more than homelessness.
@Blah blah:
Isn’t it possible to focus on both?
@Avina Laaf:
And then hospital waiting lists and then public transport and then this and then that. We can’t get everything we want and people wonder why. Oh, and we want to lower taxes too
@Nick Allen: so lets abdicate all responsibilities and accounability for TD’s – oh we already have such is the mess.
@Blah blah: unfortunately most people don’t care about people with mental health issues and like Millie’s dad said just tell them “everything will be ok” and think that solves the issue, when everything clearly isn’t ok.
@Nick Allen: You’re right there, the government has a lot of sensitive, important issues they can’t or won’t deal with it alright for one reason or another.
@Avina Laaf: I agree but don’t forget there are many that are homeless die to mental health issues too.
@Blah blah: can you honestly not see the correlation between mental health issues and homelessness??
@Blah blah: you are wrong. When i became homeless i then became depressed and suicidal. So not sorting the homeless crisis will only add the the suicide rates. I get your point tho x. The mental health services in this country is shameful.
@Avina Laaf: it all starts at home it look to me 2 very buisy people forgot about their children growing up too late now.
@Tadhg O’shaughnessy: That’s very unfair. Seems to me that they tried to do everything they could but the facilities weren’t available to them.
@lonie: yes there is for some of the homeless. But people need to realise that a person can have a home, a family, a good job and suffer from mental illness and cannot access supports due to lack of funding.
But the media and some people are blinded by the homeless issue. The homeless issue is not country wide.
I cannot think of one family, one person who themselves or someone close to them, have not suffered from mental illness.
Especially youth and child mental illness, I now as an adult can pin point moments of friends who showed signs of mental illness when we were even in primary school, who are no longer here as they couldn’t deal with the pain and had no access to services.
@Nick Allen: Well if hospitals were staffed seven days a week with a full compliment of staff in every area then we wouldn’t be in such a mess to put it mildly. Now before you or anyone else bounces back to me to imply I’m a slave driver! Of course staff should have their five day week slotted in some other way – in other words we simply need more staff! The areas of hospitals which are fully staffed seven days a week are the kitchen and domestic. Do hotels partially close down at 5pm on Friday evenings and reopen at 8am Monday mornings?! No they don’t why? because they come under the category of essential services – Seemingly hospitals don’t and their attached services don’t.
@Blah blah: its is country wide!! Just because dublin is only mentioned in the media dont be fooled in thinking nowhere else is effected. Im living in Meath and work as a volunteer for a advice services for the homeless and i can tell you there are a lot of homeless people in Meath FACT. Sorting the homeless crisis will take massive pressure of the health services not just mental health
@Blah blah: 3 Government Party FG TD’s tuned up to discuss homelessness. They obviously don’t give a rats ar$e about people.
Awfully sad.
But an Instagram account at 11, and people wonder why she was “unhappy with her appearance for a number of years”.
Instagram is full of image obsessed pouting wannabes, if you are reading this and your 11 year old is on Instagram or Snapchat… Do something about it today.
@paddlingAlong: I agree young kids are under far to much pressure with social media my heart bleeds for these poor people such a sad needless loss
Eist Linn is an 20 bed in patient regional Child and Adolescence mental Health Service CAMHS facility in Cork serving an population of 1.1m people. Only 13 of the 20 beds were ever opened and the prospects of the full 20 ever opening are as far away as ever. In 90% of the county where a CAMHS service actually exists, it operated on a 9 to 5, five day week basis no weekend cover, no out of hours, no on call services. Most CAMHS services would be operating on a 50% to 75% of the recommended staffing levels.
@Charles Williams:
Thank you Charles Williams, thats the kind of comment that is useful. Information is king.
Big hug to those she left behind.
@Charles Williams: the lack of an out of hours service is a huge issue. My son has ASD and is on a waiting list for CAMHS. This week he has had several full scale panic attacks which are so upsetting to witness yet I had nowhere to call for help or guidance.
@WalKir: well said
@Hoggle: I hope your son gets the help he needs soon
Saw it, extremely, extremely sad for all, no words can lighten what they are going through, awful, awful, time does bring ease,feel for them, life is a balls at times.
So Sad and such a beautiful little girl God Help Her Family nothing can prepare you for something like this I’m full of admiration for her Mam and Dad going on the Show to talk about it that can’t have been easy something has to be done and done now too many young people taking their own lives
Everyone get signing the petition tragedies like this can be avoided.
Girls have a lot of pressure from online influences. Bullying on Facebook, sexy selfies on Instagram, body image pressure from fashion web sites, e-mail, instant messaging, it’s all too much. I think kids need to disconnect when they come home from school Home should be a safe pace the parents are in control of and the child can relax in. With electronic devices in their bedrooms they are under constant peer pressure now.
@Adam Douglas: stop, you talking a lot of sense here… Let’s pass ALL the blame to the government, that is the way. and I am not implying that more investment is not needed in mental health because it is needed and neither I am blaming the parents because you can do what you can do at the end of the day… but this society we live in is quit complex for kids and the internet and mobile phones are to me an awful tool to bully, harrass,make self confidence be destroyed – not talking internet stalkers, pedophiles….. a kid should not have social accounts until is mature enough, period…
Frightening to say the least her age and not much help its not as if no warning signs but typical ireland whinge after the fact im sure leo will bring in better facilities for mental health when he gets back from the gay pride march he’s at in Tanzania
@gavcread: the death and pain of loosing a child, shouldn’t never be used to make cheap political digs..
@David Dineen: it’s a fair point , relevant to the subject and not a cheap political point. Saying something that offends your indefensible support if FG isn’t being cheap.
@gavcread: @gavcread: Seeing that you felt a need to mention gays for some reason, a 2016 study funded by the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention found that LGBT youth in Ireland are three times as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexuals of the same age. Also, considering that authorities in Tanzania routinely conduct anal examinations of suspected gays in order to imprison them, I’d be happy to think that Leo is supporting the gay community there.
@Misanthrope:
It is a cheap swipe. It’s jumping on an issue and blaming the government/ Leo whatever the issue is.
@Nick Allen: remarking on our skeletal mental health and child psychological services in a fair point to make. The lack of such services is government policy.
@Misanthrope: And funding being cut to mental health too several times by FG and Labour too whilst they were in coalition, it doesn’t get highlighted much at all for some reason.
It was a pitiful attempt to link the two. Anyway, it is Simon you need to give out to, unless you believe ministers have no function
Extremely upsetting watch. People need to see the bigger picture here though. There is zero point being outraged by the lack of supports for these children if on budget day you complain about tax hikes. We are a small nation who underfund most of our vital services, yet expect them to function properly. We can’t have it both ways; Ireland needs to decide what kind of a society we want, and start looking at our own personal responsibility to achieve that!
@Himalaya Joe: it was very brave for Fiona and Tim to go onto the late late show, words fail to describe what difficult a journey it must be to lose your 11 year old beautiful daughter and then try make sense of the world and deal with the very many flaws and weaknesses in Ireland’s services. I don’t really understand why people use comment sections on such difficult subjects to waffle
- they have made really important points worth thinking about seriously and signing petition for to try correct
lWe are spending ten times more on road safety messages than suicide prevention but losing much more of our people young and old to suicide and need to try remedy that. Please sign the petition !!
@Dave Hammond: Dave if you want to hear harrowing story after harrowing story while putting your head in the sand about the root causes for the lack of effective services, that’s your own business. I, on the other hand, would rather we came up with solutions so we don’t keep losing children like this. Cheers for the advice though.
@Himalaya Joe: erm perhaps you should read my comment again where I suggested taking some action instead of waffling. Cheers.
Everyone who is feeling anxiety and depression should go and talk to their GP who should take bloods to check their vitiman B, D, folic acid and magnesium levels. Any defiency of the above can cause anxiety. That can be adjusted if you are deficienced, before starting anti depressants and turning to alcohol for instant relief.
Unfortunately its not seen so our useless government will do nothing about it. One of the best services in the country is Pieta house and its a charity, that tells you everything.
What a sick depraved society we have when a beautiful young child feels they have to take such drastic action because of their appearance.
Rip angel, your environment was ugly, not you
Watched it, so heart breaking.
The goverment do not care about the lack of help for mental heath difficulties or facilities.
More interested in lining there own pockets.
Talk & talk only way of helping your self.
So proud of those parents, may they take comfort in the fact they are now helping others.
I feel because suicides aren’t allowed to be reported and are screened from the media there is no awareness of how prevalent they are. It also gives the impression that we are not allowed know about it. I think there would be a public outcry about lack of resources, support systems etc if we were properly aware of the facts. An honest and open reporting of suicide is needed.
Strong verbal emphasis on “She donated her organs, she saved five lives”…a stash of medication under an 11 year old’s bed?? Not buying this one folks.
@@MsMacAvoy: can you explain Please? Don’t get your point
@@MsMacAvoy: agree with you 100 % at that age she should not have a care in the world ,very strange, odd
@Patricia Ellis Dunne: If Simon “Communion Money” Harris shoves his non-consensual organ conscription “Robocop” program for big pharma through the Dail this week whilst everyone is on the lash or buried in supermarket shIIte then you know you’ve been had. No questions asked about how an 11 year old child acquired a stash of prescription meds to rival that of mid 80s Don Simpson.
@Patricia Ellis Dunne: And those Instagram “selfies” have clearly been taken by someone else.
@@MsMacAvoy: you came to all these conclusions with a couple of photos and how much fact exactly? Take your tinfoil hat wearing head and poke it somewhere else. These people have lost their daughter and your bat s***crazy comments don’t help anyone.
@@MsMacAvoy: clown
@@MsMacAvoy: ah right! Ok
My heart goes out to the parents , suicide is unimaginably horrendous to those left behind , very brave of them to go public and leave themselves open to ignorant comments .
Hopefully more lives can be saved
very sad, very strange
kids under 16 shouldn’t be let near social media or the internet, how many suicides will it take to make people cop on.
Children do not get mysteriously depressed out of the blue, just like that. Read ‘The Drama of Being a Child’ by Alice Miller.
“She loved to ice-skate, skating up to competition standard.” Why is it relevant that she skated “up to competition standard”? She loved to skate, full stop.
This child was badly let down. But who sits back and waits for the State to take care of them in such a crisis. You leave no stone unturned when urgent help is not forthcoming. Art therapy for a chld who is self-harming? Not blooming likely. The husband comes across as a middle-class Dubliner. Surely if he had sent out an SOS to extended family and friends, someone would have produced a psychiatrist willing too care for his daughter. That’s the way these things work, whether we like it or not.
Their call for a Sucide Prevention Authority is laudable, but we really have to take repsonsibility for our own action – or inaction – as well. RIP Milly, and sincere condolences to the family.
@David bury our heads in the sand and pretend everything is hunky dory ok tell that to the parents that clown seems more interested in that mug on his table than actually doing anything.
People’s bodies people’s choice ……no ??? Who are we to tell them what to do ….no????
@Inny Ginny: not the time or place and really shows a lack of empathy and understanding on your part.
@Dell: it certainly is
@Inny Ginny: Why do you finish your sentence with ‘..no???’, have you ever even been to school…..no???. Your comment is not only insensitive but I believe that you could be a caveman….no???
@Inny Ginny: NO! When someone is suffering from a mental health issue, especially a child, they are not in a clear state of mind. Their choices are coloured by illness.
@Inny Ginny: Suicide should never cross a child mind. While we’re here though, Maybe if she had access to proper information and full access to the medical help she needed she wouldn’t have felt like she had to take matters into her own hands. Have some compassion. Not every issue is black and white
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